TRENTON -- A Hopewell Township woman admitted paying bribes to a former Department of Veterans Affairs supervisory engineer who worked at the VA’s campus in East Orange, N.J., authorities announced today.

Donna Doremus, 46, pleaded guilty in Trenton federal court to three counts of a four-count information charging her with one count of bribing a public official, one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and two counts of making and subscribing to false federal tax returns.

Authorities say $671,000 in bribes were paid from 2007 to July 2012 to a former VA official, Jarod Machinga, 44, also of Hopewell, in connection with VA contracts awarded to three companies Doremus owned and controlled.

As a supervisory engineer, Machinga had the authority and influence to direct certain VA construction contracts to particular companies. He directed more than $6 million of VA construction projects to Doremus’ companies, authorities said in a United States Attorney's Office release.

One of Doremus’s companies, Tyro General Construction, entered into a service-disabled, veteran-owned small business contract with the VA. Congress has established a program under which certain VA contracts are reserved for small businesses that are owned and controlled by service-disabled veterans.

Doremus conspired with Machinga to falsely represent to the VA that Tyro was a service-disabled, veteran-owned small business so that Tyro could improperly obtain a lucrative construction contract from the VA. Machinga then used his official position and influence at the VA to award such a contract to Tyro, authorities said. In all, Tyro was paid more than $3 million by the VA in connection with this service-disabled veteran-owned contract.

She is also accused of engaging in tax crime, having falsely reported the bribes and personal expenditures as company business expenses for tax years 2009 and 2010. As a result, she failed to pay more than $250,000 she owed to the IRS, according to the release.

In September, Machinga pleaded guilty to accepting kickbacks from Doremus and engaging in a scheme to defraud the VA. He is awaiting sentencing.

The bribery, conspiracy and false tax return charges carry maximum penalties of 15, five and three years in prison, respectively. Each count also carries fines of $250,000 or more.

U.S. Attorney Fishman praised special agents of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Inspector General, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey Hughes; special agents of the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Aaron T. Ford; and special agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation, under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge Jonathan D. Larsen, for their work leading to today’s guilty plea.

Both Doremus and Machinga pleaded guilty in front of before U.S. District Judge Mary L. Cooper.